Dear Reader:

Meet the amazing Holderness Family! If they look familiar it is probably because you got caught up with their 2013 Christmas video rap…”Christmas Jammies.” I remember watching that video over and over and laughing my head off.

Well…now that it is time to return to school they have made a video titled: Baby Got Class: (A Back to School Parody) Again I find myself laughing uncontrollably. Do take two minutes, out of your day, to watch! You won’t regret it.

Baby Got Class — A back to school parody – YouTube

The thing about this family that I love is that they don’t take themselves seriously and it makes everyone fall in love with them…but in reality Penn and his wife Kim had to “seriously” make some life -altering decisions after the popularity of “Christmas Jammies.”

Penn had worked in television for 18 years and it was “seriously” no longer fun. He found himself not caring about half the things he talked about on the news.

As he described himself…he was a…

(Penn at WNCN) …  “fancy shmancy news  anchor.”

So he quit his job (very scary) and he now runs a video production/digital marketing company in Raleigh, North Carolina (www.VisitTheGreenroom.com) and is using his blog to showcase the 100% of things he actually cares about.

The Holderness Family | Facebook

He and his wife (who works alongside Penn on his projects) found the ‘secret portal’ to their passion in life…poking fun at every day events and finding ways to make people smile along the way. What a great gift to give others!

After one of the children’s teachers called home asking what their child  ate before coming to school (he was off the walls) Penn wrote : Ode to Teachers: Thank you for not selling my children on-line.

His comic relief provides just the “relief” we all need after a stressful day…and all of us can connect with all the trials and tribulations of  the dynamics of daily life (in general) this family encounters.

It has long been a secret tradition for first year retired teachers to have breakfast with fellow retirees and watch the yellow school buses go by the first day of school….while ordering another slice of bacon and more coffee.

Or you can find a restaurant/bar and order a drink (It’s five o’clock somewhere) to watch the buses return home with the rowdier kids squirming out the windows by then and have a toast for the poor bus driver and the teachers.

I remember the first few days of school…the principals wanted all the teachers outside on bus duty morning and afternoon…in the morning everyone had a big smile of anticiption on their face…by the end of that first day…the teachers were still smiling, but if you looked closely…their lips were trembling.

It is true, I believe, that hell must be in the shape of a yellow school bus.

It is not easy to make a major change in one’s life…especially with family responsibilities …but life is too short to spend over a 1/3 of it being miserable in one’s work. The secret is discovering what makes you want to get up in the morning…what excites you…and then pray hard and make the leap of faith.

We must never forget but always  remember that we are not alone in any major changes or endeavors in our lives.

So until tomorrow…If we try to emulate God’s ways…then, surely, we must realize that God is the greatest risk-taker in the world…after all He made us…right? Go for it!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Here are some photos of the latest “kids” in the garden